FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT EAST LOS ANGELES - PAGE 5

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fire officials on Saturday said they had fully contained a wildfire that scorched the hills east of Los Angeles as record-setting dry weather parched Southern California. The fire has burned about 310 acres in Riverside County, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It was fully contained by 6 p.m. local time, the Riverside County Fire Department said on its website. The blaze broke out on Thursday afternoon in Jurupa Valley near the city of Riverside, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles.

Though singer Lysa Flores (at left) is part of the rock en espanol movement these days, she shares with the Mexican-American band Los Lobos a heritage of American punk and Latin rhythms. Her latest album, "Tree of Hope," capitalizes on the small buzz she built up from 1998's "Star Maps" indie film soundtrack and opening Los Angeles shows for veterans like Dave Alvin and fIREHOSE. Flores, who is from East Los Angeles, is one of the main attractions at 1999 Del Corazon, the annual six-week Mexican Performing Arts Festival.

On Aug. 31, 1881, the first U.S. Tennis Championships were played, in Newport, R.I. In 1888 Mary Ann Nicholls was found murdered in London's East End in what generally is regarded as the first slaying of "Jack the Ripper." (An erroneous statement as published has been deleted from this text.) In 1916 journalist Daniel Schorr was born in New York. In 1941 "The Great Gildersleeve" began its long run on NBC's radio network. In 1962 the West Indies islands of Trinidad and Tobago became an independent state in the British Commonwealth.

Two 300-pound black bears caused a stir when they wandered into this town east of Los Angeles. One of the bruins took a dip in a backyard pool. The bears retreated back into the San Gabriel Mountains after ambling for several hours Friday through the town, which is 21 miles east of Los Angeles. State Fish and Game workers kept a close eye on the bears. Schools were notified and authorities asked residents to stay inside--and not feed the bears. "They are just roaming, looking for food," sheriff's Lt. Debra Lenhart said.

March 2 (Reuters) - Fire officials on Saturday said they had contained 80 percent of a wildfire that scorched the hills east of Los Angeles as record-setting dry weather parched Southern California. About 310 acres (125 hectares) in Riverside County have been burned by the wildfire, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the State of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The flames were still raging at midday but the wildfire was expected to be fully contained by evening, state and local fire officials said.

Six people were killed and two injured on Sunday in a crash caused by a suspected drunken driver who drove the wrong way on a highway east of Los Angeles, according to the California Highway Patrol. Investigators "believe from what they found in the vehicle that alcohol was involved," said Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Authorities will request that blood tests be conducted. Four victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and two people transported to UCI Medical Center later died, authorities said.

A woman who was believed to have been murdered turned up alive Tuesday and is now a suspect in the deaths of her children instead of a victim, authorities said. Police had believed that two decomposed bodies discovered Saturday were Martha Israel-Lopez and her 4-year-old daughter, Judith. They had said another child, 7-year-old Victor, was missing along with the family car and Israel-Lopez's mother, Graciela Israel. Tuesday, however, police acting on a tip found Israel-Lopez and her mother driving through La Palma, Diane Hecht, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, said.

With riot-torn neighborhoods as a backdrop, Bill Clinton Wednesday elaborated on his ideas for helping people get off welfare and for redeveloping blighted communities. After touring a job training center in blighted South-Central Los Angeles, the Democratic presidential candidate outlined a new plan for allowing poor people to set up special bank accounts called Individual Development Accounts. He compared them to Individual Retirement Accounts, which give tax breaks to savers, but he said the development accounts could be used for a wider range of purposes, such as buying homes, setting up businesses or paying for education.

They say figure skating at the highest level is nothing but a financial sinkhole for families, but that doesn't account for all the expenses Michelle Kwan has spared her father, Danny, over the years. Michelle and her sister, Karen, never accepted Danny Kwan's offer of $50 for every day they did not skate. Michelle never has collected on the $64,000 or so her father owes in a deal to have him stop smoking. And Michelle, now a wealthy 17-year-old, did not spent a cent on her only shopping trip in Nagano because she found everything too expensive.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles bank manager was strapped to what appeared to be a bomb on Wednesday and sent into her bank to take out money for two thieves who escaped with the cash, authorities said, describing a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood action movie. Officials believe the two suspects kidnapped the manager at her home in suburban Huntington Park on Tuesday night and forced her to participate in the robbery, Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.